On This Bright Morning

On this Bright Morning was written for a consortium of Montana high school bands. The focus group was the second band at Missoula’s Hellgate High School, the thinking being that this second band in a good music program would represent the technical development of the average high school band around the state.

The music is bright and engaging, and at the same time quite soulful. It asks players and conductors to commit fully to a very direct and powerful personal feeling. As a motivation for approaching the piece I have attached the following quote, taken from an interview with the poet, Jane Kenyon:

“Yes, there are things in this life that we must endure that are all but unendurable, and yet I feel that there is a great goodness. Why, when there could have been nothing, is there something? How, when there could have been nothing, does it happen that there is love, kindness, beauty?”

There are times of stability in life, and times of significant
transition. Transitions can be upsetting, often provoked or
accompanied by physical or emotional troubles. They are times of
uncertainty and unknowing, but also the times of greatest creative
change.

“On This Bright Morning” acknowledges the struggle, and the feelings
of pain and loss in times of transition, but embodies the pure joy of
realizing the bigger life. On this bright morning, life is new, life
is possible.

The following is from a Bill Moyers interview with the poet, Jane
Kenyon, who suffered chronic depression, and who died of leukemia at
age 48:

“Yes, there are things in life that we must endure that are all but
unendurable, and yet I feel that there is a great goodness. Why, when
there could have been nothing, is there something? How, when there
could have been nothing, does it happen that there is love, kindness,
beauty?”